DOWN TO A MIXED MARTIAL ART
Crossovers blur line between pro wrestling and actual combat, Dan Gelston writes.
Jon Jones had teased making an appearance at WWE’s SummerSlam event to stir things up in his quest for a mega fight with Brock Lesnar.
Lesnar likely would have had trouble keeping an eye on Jones, as the WWE universal champion had a title defence against three wrestlers in a Fatal 4-Way main event Sunday at New York’s Barclays Center.
The match stipulates he will leave the WWE if he loses the championship, but Lesnar isn’t going anywhere. He’s WWE’s No. 1 drawing card.
Still, the pay-per-view provision only fuelled speculation among fight fans that Lesnar could jump ship and return to the UFC for a showdown against Jones, who called out Lesnar immediately after winning the light heavyweight championship last month. Lesnar warned Jones, “Be careful what you wish for, young man.”
Lesnar reigned as heavyweight champion in his first stint at the UFC and easily became the most successful crossover fighter, from pro wrestler to mixed martial artist.
Lesnar’s not the only spandexed warrior who has stepped inside the squared circle and eight sides of cage fighting. Some notables:
CM Punk was a one-round flop when the former WWE champion made the move to UFC.
Ken Shamrock ruled as The World’s Most Dangerous Man in the early days of the UFC before he wrestled future Hollywood star The Rock at WrestleMania.
Bobby Lashley is trying to master both worlds, competing as a heavyweight for both Bellator and Global Force Wrestling.
Ronda Rousey stood side-byside with The Rock at WrestleMania and was recently spotted at a WWE-backed women’s wrestling tournament. Could the one-time face of the UFC find herself competing in the faux fighting world of WWE?
WWE star Becky Lynch and UFC champion Cristiane (Cyborg) Justino had a social media feud to push a potential SummerSlam bout.
Dan (The Beast) Severn, Tank Abbott, Rampage Jackson and Dave Batista have all had mixed success trying to mesh triangle chokes and ankle locks with drop kicks and piledrivers.
Shamrock was a key cog in the UFC’s formative years, fighting to a 36-minute draw at UFC 5 on April 7, 1995, and made the jump during the WWE’s zenith in the Attitude Era.
“It’s difficult to go from a career where you’re kicking tail and going out and dominating people and then all of a sudden you have people telling you you’re going to lay down in this fight,” he said. “That was the most difficult part for most athletes crossing over. You have to put yourself in a vulnerable situation and make people think you’re hurt. We were so programmed in our pride to not let people know you’re hurt.”
Shamrock at times found the scripted outcomes almost as tough to swallow as the dog food British Bulldog Davey Boy Smith shoved in his mouth at SummerSlam in 1997.
In the ’90s, the UFC had yet to gain the mainstream credibility it has today and Shamrock entered a sports entertainment world where he knew none of the wrestlers legitimately wanted to mess with him. But they were curious if Shamrock could change from martial artist master to entertainer — and he did. Shamrock kept many of the traits that made him a star in UFC — in the WWE, he was known for exiting matches over supposed internal bleeding rather than quitting.
“I was a world champion. There was nobody in the world that could beat me,” Shamrock said. “When I first went there, there were a lot of people that were very upset that I would go there and do something like that. But if it wasn’t for the fact that I crossed over, we might not be talking about the UFC or the WWE as we talk about them now.”
Lashley, 41, is perhaps best known for representing Donald Trump in a Battle of the Billionaires match at WrestleMania in 2007. Lashley has wrestled for Global Force Wrestling since 2009, right around the time he got serious about chasing an MMA career. He’s won all five bouts since he joined Bellator in 2014 and has stated his desire to fight for the heavyweight championship.
“You can’t just say, OK, I fought before so I want to be a professional wrestler,” Lashley said.
Lashley is involved in a GWF storyline where he threatened to quit the wrestling promotion to become a full-time MMA fighter.
“He needs to focus on which one he can make the most money on and the biggest splash in right now, and in my opinion, that’s MMA,” American Top Team trainer Dan Lambert said.
Rousey made millions under contract at the UFC and can make a bigger splash now working for the WWE. Rousey, one of the more celebrated athletes in the world, has kept a low profile since her unbeaten streak came to a thud with two straight losses that put her UFC career in doubt. She’s coaching D-list celebrities on Battle of the Network Stars and was a guest of WWE executive Triple H at a taping last month of the Mae Young Classic.
“Ronda Rousey for me is a WrestleMania attraction,” veteran WWE announcer Jim Ross said.
“I think she’s a big enough star to wrestle perhaps Charlotte, or whomever. There’s a lot of ways to market Ronda Rousey. I think her love of the wrestling business and the sizzle that comes with it for WWE is something she’s very interested in. I don’t think it’s a payday issue as much as it’s a new adventure.”
It’s difficult to go from a career where you’re kicking tail and going out and dominating people and then all of a sudden you have people telling you you’re going to lay down in this fight.